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2B Daily News – Wednesday, May 18, 2011 CarGo rallies Rox past Giants again DENVER (AP) — Pitching with confidence and command, Jonathan Sanchez was on the brink of another win for the San Francisco Giants. It all slipped away after he fielded a sacrifice bunt and threw wildly to first base. Sanchez’s throwing error opened the door to a four-run eighth inning and the Colorado Rockies surged back into first place in the NL West with a 5-3 win Tuesday over the San Francisco Giants. ‘‘He threw quality strikes and that was a big improvement for Johnny,’’ Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of Sanchez. ‘‘He was locked in, did a great job. He went out there in the eighth and made a couple of mistakes there. Worst case, you’re hoping to get out of there with a tie, but he threw the ball away at first and it ended up killing us.’’ Through seven innings, it appeared as though the Giants were going to get their sixth win in eight tries against the Rockies and leave town with a 1 1/2- game lead over their rivals. Sanchez (3-3) allowed three hits and didn’t walk a batter over the first seven innings but gave up back-to-back singles to Ryan Spilborghs and Chris Iannetta leading off the eighth, then threw away Alfredo Amezaga’s sacri- fice bunt, allowing Spilborghs to score from second base and pull Colorado to 3-2. ‘‘It was an easy out at first,’’ Sanchez said. ‘‘I should have made that play. I think that’s why we lost. Amezaga is pretty fast and I just want- ed to make sure I got him out, and I threw it away.’’ Javier Lopez relieved Sanchez and Dexter Fowler greeted him with an RBI double. One out later, Carlos Gon- zalez, whose three-run homer off Tim Lincecum propelled Colorado past the Giants on Monday night, sent a fastball to right field to snap a 3-3 tie and make a winner of reliever Matt Belisle (4-2). ‘‘I was trying to go down and in,’’ Lopez said. ‘‘I imagine it wasn’t too well located, right in his swing path or something. Obviously, he’s a good hit- ter and he hit it into right.’’ Huston Street pitched the ninth for his 14th save in 15 tries. He gave up a one-out single to Cody Ross but started a game-ending double play on Andres Torres’ screaming comebacker. Bochy said while the Giants played well in taking the early lead, he lamented lost scoring chances, includ- ing stranding Sanchez at third after the Giants pitcher led off the seventh with a double. ‘‘We’ve got to get some guys click- ing here. We need some production throughout the order, doing some little things, to add on,’’ Bochy said. ‘‘We’re a better hitting club than this. It’s frus- trating. We can’t live on the edge every game. We’ve got to take a little of the pressure off the pitchers.’’ And the pitchers have to take some of the pressure off themselves by mak- — The new face of the Cav- aliers is 14 years old, wears a bow tie and has battled dis- ease since birth. Nick Gilbert looks nothing like LeBron James, but on Tues- day night he brought back all the hope that left Cleve- land right along with its franchise player last sum- mer. The Cavaliers got a huge jump on their post-LeBron rebuilding process, winning the lottery and the No. 1 selection in next month’s NBA draft. ‘‘Shocking events took place last summer and it was a slow, long, painful haul to get through it. Maybe this will be the final straw in get- ting over the hump, getting to the other side, and having a lot of hope for the future,’’ Cavs owner Dan Gilbert said. ‘‘That’s what we need.’’ Gilbert sent his son and ‘‘hero’’, 14-year-old Nick Gilbert, to the stage and the kid came up with a stunning victory, as the Cavs turned a pick from the Los Angeles Clippers that had only a 2.8 percent chance of victory into the top spot. Nick Gilbert was born with Neurofibromatosis (NF), a nerve disorder that causes tumors to grow any- where in the body at any time. He was wearing black- rimmed glasses and a bow tie and looked serious until he showed a keen sense of humor in a television inter- view. His father called him his ‘‘hero’’ for the way he has fought the disease. MODESTO (AP) — Greg Henderson of New Zealand powered to a sur- prising stage win and took the overall race lead at the Tour of California from British teammate Ben Swift in the wind-filled and crash- marred third stage Tuesday. Henderson (Team Sky), usually in the main lead-out rider for Swift, bolted to the front with about 500 yards left and took the 121.9-mile Auburn to Modesto road race in 5 hours, 14 minutes and 29 seconds. Henderson began the stage in 11th place, trailing Swift, the Stage 1 winner, by 10 seconds. He gained 10 seconds of bonus time for the stage and took the lead based on tiebreaker criteria. Swift is second, with Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannon- dale) of Slovakia, third over- all, trailing by 4 seconds. ‘‘We came to the Tour of California with a super strong team, unfortunately Michael Rogers (last year’s winner) is sick, so we had to ‘‘It’s sort of Nick fashion. He has been doing it his whole life to some degree. I’m proud of him. I’m proud of the way he carried him- self and I am very excited for the fans of Cleveland, Ohio who have ing fundamental defensive plays in the field, Bochy added, noting it was the Rockies’ closer whose fielding began the game-ending double play. The Giants manager suggested that he may give his club some additional fielding practice a la spring training. ‘‘We need to tighten up defensively. We’re beating ourselves,’’ Bochy said. ‘‘We’re going to have to tune it up here, Once, you can deal with it. Twice, it’s time to get to work. Three times, there’s no question, we’ve got some work to do and we’re going to have to get them out there, because that’s too many times.’’ With the two-game sweep, the Rockies moved a half game ahead of the Giants in the division, and they snapped a streak of nine straight losses in games started by ace Ubaldo Jimenez, who pitched seven solid innings and did not figure in the deci- sion. ‘‘If the season ended today, I sup- posed we’d be panicked,’’ Lopez said of the Giants dropping into second place in the division. ‘‘But I mean, we’ve got three quarters (of the season) left, so I think we’re OK.’’ Notes: Giants IF Freddy Sanchez took the day off with swelling in his left knee that’s bothered him for a couple of days. Manager Bruce Bochy said he’s hoping Sanchez, whose .390 batting average at Coors Field is the second-highest among active players, can play against the Dodgers on Wednesday. Cavs win draft lottery, will draft No. 1 and 4 SECAUCUS, N.J. (AP) been through a very, very rough year,’’ Dan Gilbert said. ‘‘They deserve it more than anybody and they have some good hope now.’’ The Cavs will select first for the first time since 2003, when they drafted James out of high school. He left for Miami last summer and the Cavs tum- bled to the second-worst record in the league, but they will have two top-four picks next month as they try to back owner Dan Gilbert’s boast that they would win a title before James. They already had their own pick and acquired another at the trade deadline from the Clippers in the deal for Baron Davis. Minnesota will select second and Utah turned New Jersey’s pick from the Deron Williams trade into the No. 3 selection. The Timberwolves con- tinued their unbelievable lot- tery losing streak, falling to 0 for 14 and dropping for the eighth time. They had a 25 percent chance of winning after finishing with a league- worst 17-65 record. Instead the luck went to the Cavs, who are used to playing deep in the playoffs and hope they won’t have to worry about this trip again. Besides Nick Gilbert, the Cavs also brought along cur- rent Cleveland Browns Josh Cribbs and Joe Haden, dressed in the Cavs’ wine change things up a bit,’’ said Henderson, a former Tour of Spain stage winner who ear- lier this season won a Paris- Nice stage. ‘‘We have two great sprinters with me and Ben Swift, so it’s either me lead- ing him out or him leading me out.’’ Juan Jose Haedo (Saxo- Bank) of Argentina was sec- ond in the stage, with reign- ing world titlist Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervelo) of Norway third, both in the same time. Veteran Tour de France rider Jens Voigt (Leopard- Trek) of Germany, Jesus Del Nero Montes (NetApp), American Will Dugan (Team Type 1) and Andreas Schillinger (NetApp) of Germany all suffered minor injuries in several crashes in the final few miles. Andreas Schillinger (NetApp) of Germany crashed earlier in the stage and also suffered minor injuries. All five crash vic- tims finished the stage and and gold jerseys, and former Browns star Bernie Kosar for good luck. They will likely decide between point guard Kyrie Irving of Duke or Arizona forward Derrick Williams as the top pick. ‘‘I don’t think you can make comparisons to me and LeBron,’’ said Irving, who attended the lottery. ‘‘One, I’m not 6-8. Two, I’m not a high flyer and three, my name isn’t LeBron James. Honestly, you can’t make those comparisons yet. I think I would bring a different feel to the Cleve- land organization if they do decide to take me.’’ With the NBA down to its final four teams, 14 at the bottom of the standings made the trip to NBA Enter- tainment studios in northern New Jersey for what Com- missioner David Stern called the league’s ‘‘annual rite of renewal.’’ ‘‘There are a lot of teams who think they are one play- er away and this may be the player,’’ Stern said during a news conference before the lottery. And it was an important year to finish near the top. In part because of the league’s uncertain labor situation, the draft is not considered par- ticularly deep. North Caroli- na’s Harrison Barnes and Ohio State center Jared Sullinger were among the expected lottery picks who instead decided to return to school. But the lottery again failed to help the team that needed it most. Not since 2004, when the Orlando Magic picked Dwight Howard, has the team with are expected to continue rac- ing. Seven riders escaped from the main field just after the start and built about an eight-minute lead. With the main group unmotivated and strong headwinds gusting at more than 20 mph, the lead riders rode for several hours at an average speed of less than 20 mph. The winning time was about 45 minutes slow- er than expected. But just like in the open- ing stage, the lead group’s margin was steadily absorbed, setting up the race’s second straight sprint finish. Henderson moved to the front early for a winning fin- ish and thinking he was set- ting up Swift for his second win. ‘‘There was a lot of chaos on the final lap,’’ Henderson said. ‘‘We were all lined up. With 100 meters to go, I thought no one had come around me, so I just kept my head down. I was absolutely the worst record picked first in the draft. The Wolves went from second to fourth when Washington won last year, but this drop could be more costly — though probably not as much as the only other time they had the best chance to win. A two-spot dive in 1992 cost them a shot at Shaquille O’Neal and they instead settled for Christian Laettner at No. 3. Wolves general manager David Kahn said he knew Minnesota was ‘‘dead’’ when it got down to the final three of himself, Utah exec- utive Kevin O’Connor and Nick Gilbert. ‘‘This league has a habit, and I am just going to say habit, of producing some pretty incredible story lines,’’ Kahn said. ‘‘Last year it was Abe Pollin’s widow and this year it was a 14-year-old boy and the only thing we have in com- mon is we have both been bar mitzvahed. We were done. I told Kevin: ’We’re toast.’ This is not happening for us and I was right.’’ Then again, maybe the Cavs needed the help more. James’ departure from his home state turned a 60-win power into the worst team in the Eastern Conference. Dan Gilbert was defiant when James left, but it was obvious all season his team needed plenty more fire- power to live up to his tough talk, especially when the Cavs lost an NBA-record 26 consecutive games. Toronto and Washington dropped to Nos. 5 and 6 and Sacramento, represented by Mayor Kevin Johnson, fell to No. 7. Henderson wins stage, takes overall lead spent at the line.’’ The seven-day race con- tinues Wednesday with an 81.8-mile road race from Livermore to San Jose, the event’s first of two moun- taintop finishes. The stage will feature five climbs, including the concluding 3.5-mile ascent with a 9.4 percent gradient. NBA PLAYOFFS Conference Finals Tuesday’s result Dallas 121, Oklahoma City 112 Dallas leads series 1-0 Today’s game Miami at Chicago, 5:30 p.m., TNT Chicago leads series 1-0 Thornton wanted to start Western finals with fight VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — San Jose captain Joe Thornton tried to get the Western Conference finals off to a raucous start when he asked gritty Van- couver Canucks forward Ryan Kesler to drop the gloves right off the opening faceoff. ‘‘Why not?’’ Thornton said Tuesday, confirming he made the invitation to Kesler. ‘‘Let’s fight. Let’s start the series off with a bang.’’ It didn’t happen. Instead, the Canucks rallied in the third period for a 3-2 win on Sunday night. Maybe Thornton and the Sharks should be more con- cerned about how they finish games than how they start them. San Jose is trailing in a series for the first time this postseason and will have a chance to get even on Wednesday night in Game 2 in Vancouver. The Sharks’ inability to hold onto third-period leads nearly cost them in the sec- ond round against Detroit, when the Red Wings erased a 3-0 series deficit to force a Game 7. Even though the Sharks are behind in a series for the first time, they are all too familiar with coughed-up leads. San Jose surrendered third-period advantages in Game 5 and 6 against the Red Wings before holding off Detroit in Game 7. The Sharks were ahead 2-1 going into the third peri- od of Game 1 against Van- couver, but gave up two goals 79 seconds apart and were outshot 13-7 in the final frame. That makes three blown third-period leads in four games for the Sharks, who were 33-2-2 during the regu- lar season when leading after 40 minutes. ‘‘I certainly don’t feel uncomfortable with a lead,’’ Sharks top defenseman Dan Boyle said. ‘‘That’s where I want to be, and we have to find a way to finish people off, maybe by getting that next goal and building on that one-goal lead.’’ It’s a lesson the Canucks already learned — the hard way — in these playoffs. Vancouver was 38-0-3 with the lead after two peri- ods during the regular sea- son in which the Canucks had the NHL’s best record and topped the league in several key categories. But after surrendering a 3-0 series lead to nemesis Chica- go to start the playoffs, the Canucks gave up a short- handed goal late in Game 7 before recovering to win in overtime. They continued to sit on MLB West Division American League WL Pct GB Angels 22 20 .524 — Texas A’s Seattle 17 23 .425 4 East Division WL Pct GB Tampa Bay 24 18 .571 — New York 21 19 .525 2 Boston 21 20 .512 2.5 Toronto 21 20 .512 2.5 Baltimore 19 21 .475 4 Central Division WL Pct GB Cleveland 26 13 .667 — Detroit 22 19 .537 5 Kansas City20 21 .488 7 Chicago 18 25 .419 10 Minnesota 12 27 .308 14 ————————————————— Tuesday’s results Los Angeles at Oakland, late Chicago 4, Texas 3 Cleveland 7, Kansas City 3 New York 6, Tampa Bay 2 Minnesota at Seattle, late Baltimore at Boston, ppd., rain Toronto at Detroit, ppd., rain Today’s games Minnesota (Pavano 2-4) at Oakland (McCarthy 1-4),7:05 p.m.,CSNC New York (Colon 2-2) at Baltimore (Britton 5-2), 4:05 p.m. Tampa Bay (Hellickson 4-2) at Toronto (Litsch 4-2), 4:07 p.m. Detroit (Coke 1-5) at Boston (C.Buchholz 4-3), 4:10 p.m. Cleveland (Masterson 5-1) at Chicago (Peavy 0-0), 5:10 p.m. Texas (Ogando 4-0) at Kansas City (Duffy 0-0), 5:10 p.m. Los Angeles (Weaver 6-3) at Seattle (Vargas 2-2), 7:10 p.m. NHL PLAYOFFS Conference Finals Tuesday’s result Boston 6, Tampa Bay 5 Series tied 1-1 Today’s game San Jose at Vancouver, 6 p.m.,VS Vancouver leads series 1-0 Thursday’s games Minnesota at Oakland, 12:35 p.m. Los Angeles at Seattle, 12:40 p.m. New York at Baltimore, 4:05 p.m. Tampa Bay at Toronto, 4:07 p.m. Detroit at Boston, 4:10 p.m. Cleveland at Chicago, 5:10 p.m. Texas at Kansas City, 5:10 p.m. Monday’s late results Oakland 5,Los Angeles 4, 10 innings Seattle 5, Minnesota 2 22 20.524 — 21 20 .512 .5 leads against Nashville early in the conference semi finals, surviving a 1-0 win in Game 1 before surrendering one with 67 seconds left in Game 2 and losing in over- time. It wasn’t until Game 6, the series’ clincher against the Predators, that the Canucks got back to their regular season habit of try- ing to build on, rather than protect, late leads. ‘‘I hope we’ve learned from our mistakes and mishaps, and we have to continue to have that killer instinct,’’ Canucks forward Mason Raymond said. ‘‘We were good all year but regu- lar season is regular season, playoffs are another level. We talked about having more of a killer instinct when we do get the lead, not sitting back so much.’’ Fatigue might have played a role in the Sharks’ latest late-game letdown. Coming off an emotional Game 7 win against Detroit and with only two days off before starting their second straight conference finals, San Jose looked tired against the Canucks’ third-period push. After taking Monday off before practicing Tuesday, both teams expect better from the Sharks in Game 2. ‘‘(Monday) helped us a little,’’ Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. ‘‘We dealt with the mental part of the game, some video. Today it was important to get back on the ice and get our legs going. We had some tempo. Doesn’t guarantee we’ll skate any better, but it’s a step in the right direction.’’ Boyle’s next step is to keep going forward. He said the Sharks were guilty of turning over the puck on their way into the offensive zone, and that they spent too much time in their own end as a result of the Canucks’ counterattack. That is exactly where Kesler wants his team, pointing to the continued push after the Canucks took the lead with 11 minutes left in Game 1. ‘‘We’ve learned from past experience that we’re not a very good team when we sit on leads,’’ Kesler said. ‘‘We have to keep pushing and play a fast game.’’ As for fighting to start games, Kesler said he laughed at Thornton’s invi- tation after a lot of jostling got both players tossed out of the series’ first faceoff. ‘‘I’m not intimidated by anyone,’’ Kesler said, point- ing to Nashville defenseman Shea Weber as proof. ‘‘I played against Weber and that beard last round.’’ MLB West Division National League WL Pct GB Colorado 22 18 .550 — GIANTS 22 19 .537 .5 Dodgers 19 23 .452 4 Padres 18 23 .439 4.5 Arizona 17 23 .425 5 East Division WL Pct GB Philadelphia25 16 .610 — Florida 24 16 .600 .5 Atlanta 25 19 .568 1.5 Washington 20 21 .488 5 New York 19 22 .463 6 Central Division WL Pct GB Cincinnati 25 17 .595 — St. Louis 24 19 .558 1.5 Milwaukee 20 21 .488 4.5 Pittsburgh 18 23 .439 6.5 Chicago 17 23 .425 7 Houston 15 27 .357 10 ————————————————— Tuesday’s results Colorado 5, San Francisco 3 Atlanta 3, Houston 1, 11 innings Cincinnati 7, Chicago 5 St. Louis 2, Philadelphia 1 Milwaukee at Los Angeles, late San Diego at Arizona, late Florida at New York, ppd., rain Pittsburgh at Washington, ppd., rain Today’s games San Francisco (Cain 3-2) at Los Angeles (Kershaw 5-3),7:10 p.m. Colorado (De La Rosa 5-1) at Philadelphia (Hamels 4-2), 4:05 p.m., ESPN Chicago (Dempster 2-4) at Florida (Nolasco 3-0), 4:10 p.m., WGN Pittsburgh (Morton 4-1) at Cincinnati (Arroyo 3-3), 4:10 p.m. Washington (Gorzelanny 2-2) at New York (Niese 2-4), 4:10 p.m. Houston (Norris 2-2) at St. Louis (Lohse 4-2), 5:15 p.m. Atlanta (Teheran 0-1) at Arizona (J.Saunders 0-5), 6:40 p.m. Milwaukee (Gallardo 4-2) at San Diego (Moseley 1-5), 7:05 p.m. Thursday’s games San Francisco at Los Angeles,7:10 p.m. Pittsburgh at Cincinnati, 9:35 a.m. Washington at New York, 10:10 a.m. Houston at St. Louis, 10:45 a.m. Colorado at Philadelphia, 4:05 p.m. Chicago at Florida, 4:10 p.m. Atlanta at Arizona, 6:40 p.m. Milwaukee at San Diego, 7:05 p.m. Thursday’s late results Florida 2, New York 1, 11 innings Milwaukee 2, Los Angeles 1 San Diego 8, Arizona 4 San Jose Sharks Giants 3 Colorado 5 NBA